Random Quote

Random Image

Random Merchandise

Random TV/Movie Quote

"And when she was bad... She was wicked" 24 Magazine issue #5 (January 2007)

by Tara DiLullo

Ah, Nina Myers – she may have made Jack’s life a living hell, but it certainly was entertaining watching her cause havoc wherever she went… actress Sarah Clarke shares her thoughts on playing one of TV’s wickedest female villains…

Jack Bauer has faced a veritable rogues gallery of memorable bad guys over his worst 120 hours. From extreme terrorists, to swayed mentors, and even a corrupt President, he’s fought them all. But not one of them has ever lived up to the villainy of Jack’s ultimage foe – Nina Myers. Introduced in Season One as Jack’s colleague at CTU and former lover during his separation from his wife Teri, Nina worked side by side with him, helping to find his daughter and save the life of Presidential candidate David Palmer. It wasn’t until the final episodes of the season that Nina was revealed to be the CTU mole. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she truly crossed the line when she murdered Teri Bauer in cold blood before she was eventually caught and incarcerated for her treasonous actions.

Proving you can’t keep a wicked and captivating villain down, Nina Myers returned to vex Jack Bauer in Season Two, and for one, final climactic showdown in Season Three, when justice finally caught up with the shady dame. Actress Sarah Clarke says playing nasty Nina over three seasons, for all her faults and flaws, provided her with some of the best challenges of her career. Clarke turned what could have been a one-note treasonous bitch into a finely tuned performance with surprising layers and blistering on-screen chemistry with Kiefer Sutherland. Behind the scenes, 24 also ended up playing matchmaker in her personal life, connecting her with fellow actor Xander Berkeley, who played George Mason on Seasons One and Two. Clarke continues to work on television in shows like Las Vegas, Commander in Chief, and House. Clarke dusts off her Nina days once more to chat about landing the role – and the art of perfecting being very, very bad.

24 Magazine: How did you land the role of Nina?
Sarah: I came into it very late. I was in New York and the producers flew me out to L.A. During pilot season, you are reading so many different scripts and I remember really liking 24, but I didn’t really take notice of the real-time concept. I just sort of went, “Oh, yeah, yeah, whatever.” So I flew out to test for the network. In the morning, I tested and that afternoon I was shooting, so it was very last minute! They had been looking for a Nina and they were ready to go. For me, to go that quickly into the project, you get a sense of your character, but you don’t get a sense of the whole. In the pilot, there was ambiguity about who was who. When I was thrown into CTU, my whole thing was about hierarchy. Who is my boss? In my relationship with Kiefer, yes, we had been lovers, but I was still wondering if I was a secretary. Like, who am I? They showed me the desk where I would be working and it still wasn’t clear. They said that I was the Chief of Staff but then it turns out that I was Tony’s partner, so it morphed. Because the CIA is so hard to research, everyone was making it up and we had to really focus on relationships.

Nina was very much portrayed with ambiguity at the start of the season. Did the producers prompt that from you?
As far as ambiguity, they did say in the CIA you never know who’s got what information, and information is power. It’s all on a need to know basis. There was always this idea that you know something I don’t and you try to get it from that person. Clearly, I had no clue about being the mole. No one knew about that until much later.

Did you wonder who the mole was all season, like the audience did?
Yeah. I remember wandering into a production office and I saw one of the brainstorming boards and I remember seeing mole possibilities and one of them was Alberta Green. I think even she was too obvious, but that was all I ever saw.

When did they tell you Nina was the mole?
Literally, I think I got it four [episodes] from the end. Honestly, I think they thought of it 16 [episodes] into the season.

After spending a season seemingly helping Jack, was the mole twist surprising to you too?
Yeah! I was naïve and thought, ‘Yeah, I love Jack and I’m the one who helps him.’ Certainly, when they told me, I was blindsided, then I was really excited. For the first two minutes, I was like, “Wait a minute, there is no way. I have been playing it this way.” But then talking to Joel [Surnow] and really fleshing it out, it made perfect sense that I played a great double agent.

Is it your opinion that Nina was always evil?
I don’t think I started off bad and I don’t think a lot of people that do bad things start there.

One of the highlight moments for Nina in Season One was when Jack ‘shot’ her and left her for dead at the bottom of a hill. Did you do your own stunts?
I had an amazing stunt double and she went down the hill. I watched her do it three times and I was like, “Wow! She makes that look really good.”

Was that a memorable scene to shoot?
Absolutely. There is a funny story about the shooting of that episode. We do a lot of things in the Valley and we shot in Canoga Park. It was very complex because they had the video cameras in the car as well as the film cameras shooting the action. When we were filming the scene with the film camera, we were being pulled by a flat bed so you do the things where you are turning but you really aren’t worried about driving. When we first shot the scene, it was noon and there weren’t many people on the street. When we shot the video coverage that has to synch up, they sent us out in a car and it was now full of traffic. Things weren’t synching up, plus we were stopped and Kiefer has a big gun on me. The show hadn’t aired yet so no one knew what we were doing and I remember this woman looking over and she looks at us like, “What the hell is going on?” He just looked at her and was like, “Ha, ha!” She just looked more nervous after that! (laughs)

Did you ever get injured on the show?
Certainly you come away with some bruises when you do a show like this and I think I got even more beat up in the second season!

With Nina captured at the end of Season One and hauled off to jail, did you ever think you would come back?
Initially, I didn’t tell as single soul that I was the mole. When my agent found out she was like, “What?!” I thought it was great and fun and she was like, “What does this mean?” So when they did say I was coming back, they didn’t know for how many [episodes]. I knew I had to take everything with a grain of salt. I think I was just getting to the point of repetition until I was revealed as the mole and then that was comforting. When they told me I was coming back, I knew that my story was going to be amazing because however I was coming back, it wasn’t going to be extended to linger, so you get a concise, great story.

What was it like returning to the show for the second season?
Xander and I had gotten married between the seasons. The funny thing was that when I did come back to work we had been in Mexico and were both nicely tanned. So I thought I was in a prison and had a nice glow from working in the prison yard and Xander has been radiated and he can have a nice glow too. (laughs)

How was it confronting Jack Bauer again as Nina in Season Two?
I had the most fun in the second season because I really loved the storyline. Everything was so dynamic. It’s really lucky when you have a set-up when so many things are unsaid between characters. As long as you trust the energy of the other person, it’s all going to translate.

After toying with Jack for another season without dying, the odds of Nina returning in Season Three must have been pretty good?
It’s a weird thing and it was always up in the air if I was going to come back like they mentioned at the end of season two. They even said it would be one scene and it would be a guy on a boat and he would say, “It’s done.” I didn’t hear anything else about it and then it didn’t happen. When I saw the finale, I saw they brought Mia Kirshner back. (Nina – or rather a Nina stand in – actually did make an appearance, but it was dropped from the episode. You can find it in the Deleted Scenes on the Season Two DVD).

Did you have any requests for the character pending your return in Season Three?
They did say to me that in Season Three there was the potential of Kiefer coming after me for the whole season. Of course, when they did bring me back I was excited because it’s always fun to return. But the one thing I did say was, “Please don’t torture me for six episodes.” I didn’t want it to be about horrible torture. It’s draining, physically, and I knew that could be the potential when you are the bad person.

Were there any actors in particular you enjoyed playing against that year?
The guys they got to play the Salazar brothers, Joaquim de Almeida and Vincent Laresca, were wonderful to work with and they had a great storyline.

Was there an overall personal highlight for you working on the show?
The show was such a wild ride to begin with but meeting Xander was quite the highlight. It’s always exciting when you are at the inception of a show and you get to know everyone. I just love the cast and crew and we all became really close. I had been a transplant from New York and I didn’t know a lot of people in LA, so to come into that big, warm environment was great. Announcing our engagement to everyone was just such a thrilling moment.

Did you have any regrets about Nina’s end?
I wanted to show more backstory of who I was. They tossed it around, but one thing they are really good at figuring out is how to keep the storylines tight so people aren’t overwhelmed. I knew they wanted to explore more and weave me into the British guy’s story I was working with even more.
But overall, no. I know on this show particularly, to be a man is very powerful. So the fact that they sort of made me like a man means I got to do a lot of great things. But I was exhausted by the end of it. As much fun as it is to play a villain, when you are bringing a modicum of reality to it, it can be quite draining. It was the perfect amount of time.

Was saying goodbye to the character for the last time difficult?
It was very sad to say goodbye and you never really believe it’s over, but at the same time I am so happy for their continued success. The fact that it is in its sixth season now…we had no idea! I’m so flattered and lucky that I got to play Nina.


Killing Mrs. Bauer
Sarah: I remember thinking that killing Teri was really extreme. Leslie has such a great sense of humor. I remember there was a scene where were are fighting and I am packing up my stuff before I kill her. They kept rewriting the scene, which she just hated. She was saying, ‘I am such a whiny bitch! Just shoot me now.’ (laughs) At that point, we all had no idea what incarnation the show would come back in. [The producers] had talked about the show going backwards, so we all could come back no matter what. They also talked at one point about making the show an ensemble piece, where it was another 24 hours, but we all played different people. So there were different thoughts being thrown around about what they were going to do, so no one really took it like it was over for [Teri]. Maybe Leslie Hope did.